Confirmation Still Hurts
by Randomblackberry
Summary: When looking through some files, Apollo stumbles upon a picture of Thalassa Grammarye. Seeing the bracelets on her wrists, Apollo realises the truth. He chooses, however not to tell his boss what he probably already knew. After all, Phoenix Wright had kept his fair share of secrets from him.


**Hey, this is kind of rushed, but the muse hit me, and the muse had to be answered! Sorry in advance for typos or stuff.**

He found a picture of her in the files.

He had been tidying up the office files, piling them up and stacking them into a bookshelf in alphabetical order. He hadn't meant to open any of them, but the name 'Grammarye' plastered onto the side of a file near the top of the pile piqued his interest.

He had skimmed the file before. He had looked at most of the files before. But he looked through it more carefully now, a feeling deep in his gut telling him something, something was up about this file.

He turned a page, and saw a picture, of Thalassa Grammarye, Trucy's mother. He had seen the picture before, but had only focused on her beautiful face and smile, her hair, her likeness to Trucy.

Never the background. Her arms. Her wrists.

Her _wrists_.

Apollo jumped up from where he was sitting, upsetting some papers resting in his lap. He eased his bracelet off of his own wrist, and carefully sat it down next to the picture.

They were identical.

Under the picture, in small writing that Apollo recognised as Mr Wright's, it described the bracelets around her wrists as Grammarye family heirlooms, and also contains information of Thalassa's first marriage, and the fact that after she came back, she had only one bracelet.

One bracelet.

Apollo was suddenly finding it incredibly hard to breathe. If Mr Wright had seen that picture, and had written all that about Thalassa, then surely he would've seen Apollo and realised, realised the truth... Unless he hadn't figured it out yet?

No, that was impossible, Apollo decided. Mr Wright always knew about something before everyone else did, was the one who kept secrets, not tried to find out about them.

He had to have known. So why hadn't he said anything? The obvious solution was that it was nothing. That Mr Wright may have noticed the connection, followed it up, and found it was a dead end. That it didn't mean anything, that Apollo wasn't Thalassa's son, not Trucy's brother, and therefore wasn't worth telling him. But the other solution, somehow was far more likely.

Mr Wright was keeping yet another secret.

Anger boiled in his gut, pouring over onto him. It took all of his self control not to scream, to flip the files onto the ground and to find his boss and punch him, just like he did the day he met him. But his self control prevailed.

Apollo slipped the bracelet back onto his wrist, tidied the files away, and tried to calm the whirlwind of thoughts that threatened to consume him.

-/-/-/-/-/

"Hey Polly! Earth to Polly!"

Apollo looked up at Trucy. "H-Hi."

Trucy frowned at his lacklustre response. "What's wrong with you? You've been so distant lately!"

Apollo sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm just distracted."

Trucy's expression changed from annoyed to concerned. "Is something wrong?"

Yes. No. It wasn't a problem, per se, Apollo had no problem with somebody like Trucy being his sister. (She was a wonderful, wonderful girl, despite how much he liked to say otherwise.) It was simply the anger, the rage, the fear that Mr Wright knew, and wasn't saying a word.

"Well..."

He explained it to her, as calmly as he could, expecting tears, maybe, or surprise. Would she want to be his little sister? Maybe she already knew herself and he was just out of the loop. What he hadn't expected were her skinny arms around his middle and an expression of joy.

"That's great Polly!" she chirped. "I've always wanted a big brother, and you're perfect for the job!"

Apollo blinked, dumbfounded. "You're... You're happy?"

"Of course!" Trucy exclaimed, retracting the hug. "Why wouldn't I be? Oh... We have to go tell Daddy!"

Apollo froze, dread settling in. "Uh, no. Um, Trucy lets not tell Dadd- I mean Mr Wright."

"Huh?" Trucy asked, settling her hands on her hips. "Why not?"

A small smile sprouted on his face, mischief settling into his eyes.

"Let's keep it a secret."

-/-/-/-/-/

It takes a new lawyer, and a courtroom exploding and his best friend kicking the bucket for Mr Wright to actually talk to them and tell them the truth. By this point, Apollo had all but forgotten about him and Trucy's relation. It hadn't exactly been at the forefront of his mind.

So when Athena had gone home and Mr Wright had asked to talk to Apoloo and Trucy alone...he hadn't even thought that that was going to be the topic of conversation.

"Trucy," Mr Wright began. "Trucy, your mother's alive."

Apollo felt his jaw hit the floor. That... That was one secret he hadn't been expecting.

"Thalassa Grammarye is alive?!" he exclaimed, with more force than was probably necessary.

Mr Wright nodded slowly. "She's... She's... Lamiroir."

Apollo felt like he could faint. Trucy's mother, his mother, if his understanding was correct, was Lamiroir? The siren? The one who sang Guitar's Serenade, his favourite song? How...How did that make sense?

"What?" Trucy squealed. "Lamiroir is Mummy? But why didn't she say anything?"

"She had amnesia at the time. She's recently gotten her memory back and remembered who she is."

"Wow." Apollo began. "That's just...wow."

"I'm afraid there's more," Mr Wright said, somewhat grimly, and here was the kicker, Apollo knew it, here it was. "She's your mother too, Apollo."

Apollo folded his arms, and allowed himself this moment of petty pride. "I know."

To his surprise, Phoenix Wright's face melded into one of happiness and a little bit of amusement. "Yeah. I know you know, kid,"

"Huh? What?"

"You're sharp," Mr Wright grinned. "I knew you'd pick it up sooner or later. After you started fiddling with your bracelet a lot more often and avoiding me, I knew you had learned the truth."

"How long," Apollo began, anger beginning to settle in. "Did you know?"

"A while. A couple of years, actually." Mr Wright had the audacity to look sheepish, if anything.

"A couple of years?" Trucy echoed. "You knew for that long? Why didn't you say anything?"

"It wasn't my place to tell you-" Mr Wright started, but Apollo cut him off before he could finish.

"Two years? Two years? We've only known for less than one. Are you meaning to tell me that Lamiror, Thalassa, whoever the hell she is, never deemed any time to be the right time to tell us? That's bull, and you both know it! Why now, anyways? Haven't I lost enough? Do you think I want to meet a mother that left me on the steps of an orphanage?" Apollo was furious, raging, his voice rising with every word.

"Even though I knew you knew, I thought you would want confirmation, because after Clay-" Apollo took in a harsh intake of breath at his boss's mention of his deceased friend, as if the name itself was cursed. "You needed someone. A sister, a mother, a family. Family support you during loss. That's their job."

"Well where were they twenty three years of my life?" Apollo snapped. "I...I've suffered plenty loss in that time!"

"Your family's late." Mr Wright said simply, staring at him with kind eyes. "But, as they say, better late than never, right?"

Apollo could feel himself cracking, breaking underneath the immense weight of his family's actions. He had thought that from knowing, from seemingly understanding his heritage, from seemingly accepting Thalassa as his birth mother, Trucy as his (half) blood sister would make Mr Wright telling them the truth so much easier.

He had thought that he would get the upper hand when his boss finally told them. He'd be able to flash a smug smile and tell him he already knew and discourage him from ever keeping secrets again.

But no. That wasn't what was happening. Because the truth, hearing that confirmation made Apollo feel weak somehow, for some damn reason that he couldn't explain.

He had family, actual family, a mother and a sister, both alive and well. But he still felt no joy from this news. His family, his real blood family. Was it possible he did not want them?

No, Trucy, Trucy had always been like a little sister to him. Teasing, ambitious, helpful, unhelpful. She had filled in the sister role long before he had known of their actual relation.

It was Thalassa, there was where the hesitation lay. He wasn't willing to accept somebody who abandoned him when he was a baby, and never visited him, not once.

Never wrote.

Never called.

Never _cared_.

Why should he regard her with open arms now that she had finally decided to make herself known?

"Thalassa Gramarye." Apollo said quietly, his hand gripping Trucy's tightly. "She's not my mother. She'll never be my mother."

Trucy looked up at him with sad soulful eyes. "Polly?"

Apollo looked up, staring at Mr Wright, tears overflowing his determined gaze.

"I... I already have a family." he continued. "I have two sisters. And a b-brother," he realised his mistake, his use of the present tense, and corrects himself. "Had a brother. And my family helped support me during his loss. T-They weren't too late."

Trucy smiled. Mr Wright gazed upon the two of them happily, with a nostalgic tinge in his eyes.

"You should give Thalassa a chance, Apollo, but you're right. You already have a wonderful family right here. Two sisters, a host of cousins, aunts and uncles, and a mighty impressive dad."

Apollo blinked. "Y-You mean-"

"You're a great son, Apollo." Mr Wright said, looking proud.

Apollo released Trucy's hand, finally feeling that he didn't need her anchor, that he could stand on his own.

"Thanks Dad."

Makes squee noises. Please drop a review if you enjoyed :D. Your feedback means everything to me.


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